UKC

With this unexpected cold snap so early in the winter how cold is it at your local indoor wall?
I went to our local wall in Northampton (Pinnacle climbing centre)on Tuesday and it was colder than a penguin's chuff.
We had a good moan at 'The Management' and respect where it's due, there's now heating in the Bouldering room and it goes in to the main room on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Respect to the management for acting so quickly................ or was it already planned?
The conspiracy theory begins

Is your local wall bloody freezing like ours WAS?

Cheers

W

In reply to wilf1:

Haha! Tell me about it, I had to take my shoes off after every route to warm my feet up. It's so frustrating because it was my first time leading there and I wanted to make the most out of that impressive lead wall! They said that they'd planned on installing the heating in december ready for winter. Unfortunately for everyone winter came faaaaaar too early!

I'm going again tomorrow to finish off the rest of the routes but will be taking a few extra layers of socks!

In reply to wilf1:

We've abandoned Leeds in the winter and switched to Harrogate simply because Leeds is so cold in there. It's not a case of being soft (tho' I certainly am) but being cold is really good way of injuring yourself and that's not what we go to the wall to do.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:
In a strange way I'm happy about that, I was waiting for 'soft southern shandy swilling' comments and being flamed alive.
Now a northern boy's come on I'm not soft anymore

Cheers

W

In reply to wilf1: I climb at Leeds regularly and have yet to find it too cold this year.
But then I am a northern toughie.
And the cold affect the elderly first...

In reply to Robertostallioni:

Ouch !!!!!

In reply to wilf1: Climb harder and warm-up properly, ya jessies!!
(and wear a nice warm duvet jacket )

In reply to Robertostallioni:

And the elderly go in the daytime when it's quiet. Some mornings it's like God's waiting room in there. Maybe it's warmer at night when you can all huddle together for warmth and are fightng over routes.

In reply to wilf1:

Harrogate is the south. It's practically the Home Counties there

In reply to wilf1:

Broughton was officially the coldest recorded place in England last winter. That said I went last night and managed a reasonable session, I even took my fleece off at one point

In reply to thin bob:
I quote you Arctic explorer W H Tilman :Any damned fool can be uncomfortable.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

Insult me all you like you, you, ....... Northerners, I'll by there tomorrow evening toasting Marshmellows in the bouldering room while you lot chip ice off ya toes
How can that be a bad thing ?

Cheers
W

In reply to Tyler:

Conditions Tuesday were so good it was almost cheating! Bit of cold never did anyone any harm (much!).

In reply to Tyler:

They could build an indoor ice wall at Broughton!
People sit around in duvets drinking flasks of hot soup in winter.

In reply to wilf1: It was freezing at citybloc in Leeds last night, but once I'd warmed up I was down to my tshirt. I only needed to put my hat on between climbs to stay warm.

For those who are moaning, who do you moan to when you go outdoors? (I'm informed that sone of the best conditions are when its cold).

In reply to wilf1:

Westway down in London was pretty damned cold on Tuesday, and they had the heating on full blast.

The Swiss cottage wall is more or less outside. Imagine a conservatory about 8m high, but only the lowest 3m is glass. The rest is netting. I went there last winter, and there was snow on the holds. Still climbed, though.

In reply to wilf1:



You can see the management's problem though. If that had been my wall (going on experiences elsewhere) I would have demanded my money back then left & not returned.
They can't keeep everyone happy.
I see overheating as the management's fault ypu see, whereas it being too cold in winter or too hot in summer is just weather & I don't expect them to be able to do anything about it.

In reply to wilf1:

Bit cold, but it's better than sweating in summer.

In reply to wilf1:

Warwick Uni's "Bear Rock" was comfortable yesterday, despite the freezing conditions outside. They had some new routes up, too

In reply to wilf1: oaklands in york is a better temperature than usual - its normally too warm and sweaty coz of the swimming pooll next door, very comfortable yesterday.

In reply to wilf1:

Two or Three reps on the new auto belayer at Leeds will soon warm you up. I'm surprised no one has commented yet on the return of this much missed piece of kit

Dave

In reply to wilf1:
Climbing walls are much better when they are on the chilly side, less sweaty and less busy

That said Calshot and Harlow are both pretty unpleasant in the winter as they are big sheds in fairly exposed positions. I've seen more than one person climbing the overhang at Calshot in a down jacket in the depths of winter.

In reply to wilf1: I went to the castle climbing centre two nights ago and i think my fingers nearly fell off, the mez was simply unclimbable area. the pen was the only place you can really climb. it took an hour to warm up and 2hrs before i can take off my jumper....they need more heating in that place...

In reply to dynouk:

Sounds like it might be worth the trip for a while.

In reply to wilf1: Yeh - Pinnacle can be bloomin' freezin' at times. I was down there on Tuesday in a Brenig smock designed for the North Pole and was still shivering at times. Phil had 6 layers on haha. Your hands were so cold from the holds that I was struggling to move my fingers when I got lowered off.
Glad to know I'll be toasty later tonight, I guess everyone will be in the boulder room now tho.

In reply to mrchewy:

We were at Mile End last night. Climbing in t-shirts and never uncomfortable. Saw a few hardy souls out in the secret garden but no desire to join them. Harlow and the Reach have been freezers lately.

In reply to wilf1: Derby climbing wall (Alter Rock) is the COLDEST wall I have ever been to, went in today to catch up with someone and the thermometer read -7 oc, ridiculous!! Asking for finger injuries! Also the holds have a damp feeling, a kind of condensation! Decided to go to AWCC Stoke instead, it was very pleasant and comfortable in a tshirt after a quick warm up!!

In reply to wilf1: I'm sat in a t-shirt in ACC stoke. Gotta love bloody big gas heaters in small walls!

In reply to wilf1: you all need to man up

In reply to Dave Musgrove: Is that the loss of fluid and solids at body temp in the trouser dept warming you up as you fall 4 feet before the auto belay catches you?

In reply to wilf1:


the coldest place in the world is CALSHOT.

In reply to bouldery bits:

Second that. It's been a few years since I've been there, but I'm assuming a few heaters dotted around an aircraft hanger still don't heat things up that much?

In reply to wilf1:

Are the guys who are complaining about the cold in their local indoor walls people who never venture outside for climbing? The sort of people who spend all year never a chalkbags throw away from the cafe, sofa and climbing magazine library? or is the climbing community getting softer in their attitude to weather?

Have people lost their ability to adapt?

Get something to eat, put another layer on and get moving!

In reply to wilf1:

the edge and the foundry wasn't bad last week, I'm off there to the edge this aft to see what it's like. Main problem seems to be coz they're so hight, it's cold at the bottom, bloody hot when u get to the top.

City bloc wasn't too bad last week for boulder leeds, although there were a lot of people there warming the place up.

I remember going to the depot last year, and I'm sure it was colder inside than outside..

In reply to bouldery bits:

Ever been to Ratho?

In reply to Ojas:

Er hate to tell you this but it's not a real outdoor crag, it's a fake crag, an indoor gym. It's where we go when it's too cold and dark to climb outside. So it needs to be heated, a bit like people who swim in the sea still expect an indoor pool to be heated.

In reply to wilf1:
I always found that when I got myself warmed up properly, which admittedly takes longer, I stay warm for the rest of my session unless I sit around for too long. I found this to be true for all indoor conditions no matter how cold it seems to get. It seems to have worked for up to about -5 outdoors.

You all just need to man up and stop gossiping / drinking tea and actually do some climbing.

err you all could just climb outside in the sunshine?
Even though it's cold (-7 here in the shade) and there is snow about if you climb in the sun its probably warmer than inside.Perfect climbing weather

I've been out for the past two weekends,even climbing in a t-shirt, just a shame about the short days and lack of sunlight.

on a side note its better cold indoors than hot i find. you can just put a belay jacket on, and should be warm enough when climbing!

In reply to BlakeyDerbyshire: ive heard Alter rock is very cold in the winter.. Not good for picking up injuries

In reply to Wiley Coyote:


Doubt they'd be so keen if it stopped them swimming though

In reply to wilf1:

Dave Mac has some good tips for climbing in the cold which could equally apply indoors: http://tinyurl.com/34ynku2

Sorry if this is off-topic for a moaning thread.

In reply to dazwan:

A little adrenaline is perfect for getting the blood flowing faster. We thought it a perfect solution to the cold problem.

However, it was warm and sunny outside today at Giggleswick. Bone dry rock, no wind and no seepage - we were glad of a bit of welcome shade when the sun went down. 7 routes done but only three of us there.

Dave

In reply to wilf1:
A shameless plug for the Pinnacle climbing centre !

I was there tonight and the temperature in the bouldering room was spot on. Not so cold that I couldn't feel my toes touching the holds bur not so hot that I was dripping with swet and it was -5 outside.
The main room is better too and I'm assured that similar heating to the Boulder room will be in place on Wednesday.

So a big thanks for making life a little more tolerable.

Cheers guys

W

In reply to wilf1: Aye, it's much better. Nice to meet you on Friday chap.

Kelvin

In reply to wilf1:

Currently 12 degrees inside the wall and minus 2 outside; and still there's plenty of people climbing out in the Garden. Perhap they breed them 'arder down here

Andy

Mile End

MCC was really cold last week, jogged around for about half an hour and that seemed to the do the trick. There was about 10 people stood under a heat lamp upstairs in the bouldering room .

In reply to wilf1:

Yes our wall is cold. Just make sure you really warm up on loads of easier lines before trying anything hard, don't faff around and wear a warm jacket when belaying. When you do get warmed up its a real pleasure not to be slippinng off sweaty holds.

In reply to wilf1: yes i go to the glasgow climbing center and it was baltic on monday but they have fixed the heating now!!!!!

In reply to wilf1:
-18 in Ratho main arena yesterday.

That is quite cold.

In reply to wilf1:

Reading was nippy on Monday evening - ok if you kept moving, though.

Girlie was wearing my mate's duvet jacket when he was climbing - think I might now have an idea what she wants for Christmas!

In reply to hexcentric:

I should say ratho is an exception to my " I'd rather have cold than slippery" argument as well as the laws of thermodynamics

In reply to hexcentric:

Ouch! We had to abandon our session on Sunday - was baltic! Went into bouldering area instead. I got hot aches in one of my big toes - now that's cold!!!!! ;/